A review by runkefer
Song of the Shank by Jeffery Renard Allen

2.0

I really wanted to like this. I was very interested in the era and the subject and hoped to be immersed in the world of post-Civil War New York. Unfortunately, I never felt I was able to get below the surface. I was always drifting in a hazy understanding of what was going on, which characters were in action, and even who is saying and doing what. The writing style is elliptical and impressionistic, which keeps the reader at arm's length. There are a lot of characters, and sometimes it's hard to differentiate between them. There are lots of shifts in location, time, and characters, and not much to orient the reader--not even quotation marks. I probably could have managed better if it were shorter, not 565 pages. I persevered, but it took me a crazy long time to read this book. What a relief to have finished it today. Now I can move on to something I'll get more out of.